After-turkey musical helpings; shopping with aloha

What better way to wind down from holiday stress than listening to Hawaiian music? If you’re not ready to load your MP3 and CD players with Hawaiian Christmas music (the subject of today’s Aloha Friday column), the Union Room at San Francisco’s Biscuit and Blues is serving up nonseasonal slack-key guitar and ‘ukulele music tonight and tomorrow.

In case you missed the previous alert, tonight’s 8pm show features slack-key guitarists and composers Jim Kimo West from Southern California and the East Bay’s Patrick Landeza; tickets are $8. The Saturday night concert showcases ‘uke master Hiram Bell; tickets are $5.

But if you’d rather hit the sales, Aloha Warehouse in Japantown sent a Facebook alert out today that all in stock clothing is 25 percent off, and there’s a free gift with a purchase of $25 or more. And speaking of music, the store also has the brand-new Nā Palapalai CD “Nanea” in stock now.

Normally I’d try to post more info on local Hawaiiana for the Friday Hawai’i Insider, but having followed the islands’ maxim — eat till you’re tired, not just till you’re full — we’ll leave it at that. Mahalo nui loa to all the readers who’ve written me over the first year of this blog with such kind remarks and mahalo too to those who’ve challenged my thinking. Sharing your aloha for Hawai’i is always welcome!